On Saying No to the Adventures Life Presents You

Joseph Campbell on refusing the call that life presents you (a.k.a saying no to life, emphasis mine): “When this refusal of the call happens, there is a kind of drying up, a sense of life lost. Everything you knows that a required adventure has been refused. Anxieties build up. What you have refused to experience… Continue reading On Saying No to the Adventures Life Presents You

When you see a good move…

“When you see a good move, look for a better one.” —Emanual Lasker This chess strategy is also good advice in so many other areas: programming, business strategy, relationships, politics, and on and on.

Defend Your Position

“If you are sure of your facts, you should defend your position.” – Cecilia Payne Cecilia Payne was an astronomer and astrophysicist who discovered how to understand the composition of stars in terms of the relative abundance of hydrogen and helium. Her thesis was attacked by a superior claiming it could not possibly be true that… Continue reading Defend Your Position

Mind Over Milkshake: How Your Thoughts Fool Your Stomach

Alex Spiegel over at NPR quoting Alia Crum regarding the findings in her recent study indicating that our beliefs about food effect how our bodies metabolize that food: “Our beliefs matter in virtually every domain, in everything we do,” Crum says. “How much is a mystery, but I don’t think we’ve given enough credit to… Continue reading Mind Over Milkshake: How Your Thoughts Fool Your Stomach

Religion, Science, Intuition, Analytical Mind; Dangerous Conflations

Science emerged in a time when superstition led to attributing causes to unrelated things and religion was abused to promote suppression/oppression of ideas. Whenever people organize, organization can magnify our undesirable tendencies; religion and science are no exceptions. No institution is immune from human failings.

Positive Thinking; Harmful for Some?

Jeremy Dean’s (PsyBlog) recent nuance-light headline caught my attention: Why Positive Thinking May Be Harmful for Some A recently published study 1 by researchers at Michigan State University revealed that habitual worriers’ (Dean calls them “natural worriers”, a specious phrase) brains ‘backfire’ when trying to put a positive spin on a scenario that seems negative. Lead… Continue reading Positive Thinking; Harmful for Some?